Update #5: Fire at Tolko’s Lakeview Mill (Thursday, November 8, 2017)

Williams Lake, British Columbia (November 9, 2017). On Monday, the decision was made to remove one section of roof and to expose the area between the ceiling and the exterior roofing in other sections to enable firefighters and on-site crews to access and fully extinguish all remaining problem areas.

Following the conclusion of these activities, we can now confidently say the fire has been fully extinguished at the mill and we are no longer concerned about flare-ups.

With the fire fully extinguished, structural engineers can now conduct a more detailed impact analysis and work with staff to start putting a recovery plan in place.

At this time, we cannot say with certainty how long the sawmill will remain out of operation. We know this is difficult news for our employees and we wish we had better, more concrete news at this point. We do want to assure everyone that we are working as quickly as possible to assess the damage and determine our next steps.

In the interim, we are working with the union and our employees directly to implement options that limit the impact of this work interruption. Supervisors will continue to reach out to employees directly to provide information and answer any questions they may have.